New Delhi, Nov. 14 -- India has a diverse biscuit culture, but it doesn't always recognise it as one. Several recipes across the country use flour, jaggery, ghee and spices to create a variety of sweets and savouries, often shaped by hand or moulds, and usually deep-fried, baked or cooked on a griddle. Take the shortbread-like nankhatai or Kerala's achappams. The distinctive shapes and forms are as varied as the stories behind their origin.

There is also the Bihari thekua, a biscuit-like sweet made with freshly harvested wholewheat flour, jaggery and ghee, and often flavoured with fennel seeds or cardamom. It stands out for its decorative texture usually etched with geometric and floral patterns. "The designs, shaped using a wooden mould...